Who are they, the young Koreans of Tomsk? The symbolic space of the Korean youth centre "Anyon"

The Koreans have lived on the territory of Russia for 150 years now. They went through a lot of trials, and as a result, their culture and social life have changed. This has also had an impact on the self-identification of the Koreans. Thus, the issue arises as to their identity and the relationship with the Korean culture. Of particular interest is the question of Russian Korean youth»s identity. The article deals with the problem of identification of the Korean youth in Tomsk. The empirical material has been gathered for the study through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with the leaders and activists of the Korean public youth organization «Anyon». The main analytical tool chosen is the method of symbolic interpretation based on the symbolic concept of culture by Clifford Geertz. Project activities, participation in programmes of South Korean foundations, celebration of Korean holidays (the New Year holiday, the first year of life, and the 60 anniversary), playing traditional musical instruments (samul nori), informal gatherings of the Koreans, and the traditional cuisine - these are considered symbols of «Koreanness» and is what unites the Russian Koreans with citizens of Korea within one cultural component. The preservation of the symbolic space in the form of keeping certain traditions indicates that these cultural markers reflect the desire to demonstrate one»s «Koreanness» and to be Korean. And so, the culture acquires a performative nature, where the centre «Anyon» acts as an organization-guide whose main task is to show to all interested the Korean culture being some sort of a performance here (E. Goffman), a representation of Korean identity. In addition, the interest in and the need for manifesting their ethnicity (Koreanness) has decreased among the young Koreans. Other values are coming to the fore. The way of life and the attitude toward the surrounding world have changed which helped transform the consciousness and create new identity and awareness of oneself as a Russian Korean, with a set of certain characteristics «responsible for» Koreanness and Russianness. The Korean youth centre «Anyon» comes as a public organization bringing together the youth on various grounds, where the interest in the Korean culture is just one of the factors of keeping together. There are more and more young people of non-Korean descent participating. For the most part, these are the ones interested in learning the Korean language, traditions, and the Korean culture.

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